1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an article management device, an article management system and article management method for managing a plurality of articles by communication with RFID tags, and an RFID-tag producing apparatus for producing RFID tags for administering the articles.
2. Description of the Related Art
JP-2002-87541 A discloses (on pages 3-5 and in FIG. 1) an article management system for managing a plurality of articles In this an article management system, an IC card is attached to each of the plurality of articles which are handled as a set. Each IC card stores ID numbers of the individual articles arranged in a predetermined order, such that the ID number of the article preceding the article to which the IC card is attached is indicated. The IC card attached to the first article stores the ID number of this first article and the ID number of the last article. Information stored in the IC card of the preceding article or the first article permits detection of missing of any one of the articles of the set, thereby permitting management of the set of articles.
Recently, there is available an automatic recognition system using RFID (radio frequency identification) tags for information transmission and reception in a non-contact fashion. The RFID tags take the form of labels to be attached to articles. For example, an RFID tag is attached to each of articles handled as a set, such as a main article and accessory articles. Each RFID tag stores an ID number of the corresponding article, so that the existing or missing of each article can be easily detected.
However, the conventional article management system capable of detecting the existing or missing of each article requires reference to a data base or an instruction manual of the main article, which identifies the accessory articles, in order to identify any article which is missing. Accordingly, the conventional system suffers from a cumbersome control of the articles.